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  • Title: Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers
  • Author: Ben Horowitz
  • Narrator: Kevin Kenerly
  • Length: 07:58:00
  • Version: Abridged
  • Release Date: 04/03/2014
  • Publisher: HarperAudio
  • Genre: Business & Economics, Management & Leadership
  • ISBN13: 9.78E+12
Hey digital entrepreneurs and startup dreamers,

Let’s break this down – Ben Horowitz’s “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” isn’t your typical business audiobook. As someone who’s analyzed countless startup narratives across every medium (from TED Talks to TikTok threads), I can tell you this audiobook experience stands apart like a perfectly mixed track in a sea of elevator music.

Here’s what makes this interesting: Kevin Kenerly’s narration transforms Horowitz’s Silicon Valley war stories into something approaching spoken-word poetry. The way he delivers lines like ‘There are no shortcuts to knowledge’ with the gravitas of a hip-hop philosopher creates this incredible tension between boardroom pragmatism and artistic truth-telling. It reminds me of when I compared five different formats of “Project Hail Mary” for my podcast – some content simply demands to be heard rather than read.

The cultural impact here is fascinating. Horowitz’s rap lyric analogies for business strategy (he quotes everyone from Tupac to Jay-Z) land differently in audio format. When Kenerly drops ‘You gotta know when to hold ’em’ during the Layoff Chapter, I actually paused my workout to write down how this reframed my understanding of crisis management. It’s that rare business audiobook that makes you want to create a reaction video unpacking each chapter.

Now let’s talk audio alchemy: Kenerly masters the emotional cadence of Horowitz’s most vulnerable moments. The chapter about Horowitz nearly bankrupting his first company? You can hear the narrator’s voice catching in all the right places, creating this intimate campfire confessional vibe. It’s lightyears beyond the dry corporate narration we’ve come to expect from business audiobooks.

But here’s my critique – the audiobook format makes some of the denser operational advice harder to retain. I found myself rewinding the ‘Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO’ section multiple times (something I never needed to do with the ebook version). Though honestly? Those replays led to deeper reflection – much like how my BookTok community kept finding new layers in “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” with each listen.

Compared to similar leadership audiobooks (looking at you, “Lean Startup”), this one stands out through sheer authenticity. Where others offer polished case studies, Horowitz gives us the messy first drafts of business survival – complete with audio verité moments where you can practically hear him sweating through the tough decisions.

Who should listen? Founders needing a midnight pep talk. Managers facing impossible choices. Anyone who thinks business strategy can’t make them cry in their AirPods. Skip this if you want sugar-coated success stories – Horowitz’s truths hit harder when narrated with Kenerly’s no-bullshit delivery.

Stay curious and keep disrupting,
Sophie
Sophie Bennett